Thinking clearly about Iran

By Paul Monk

How are we to think rationally and clearly about the drama unfolding in Iran? As a veteran historian and analyst of international affairs, I was asked to give an address on this topic on 11 February, the anniversary of the downfall of the Shah of Iran in 1979. The following column is a digest of my address on that occasion – about a quarter as long.

Within a matter of days last month – 8-10 January – the paramilitary forces of the Iranian theocratic regime, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), are reported to have shot dead tens of thousands of unarmed civilians protesting against the regime’s character, policies and lack of redeemable legitimacy.

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